Travel Money Maximiser Discussion Area

dougalfrugfal

I see Tesco now have Euro ATM's in Glasgow Silverburn store.
They told me that there were only 20 in the UK and some in Northern Ireland
Has anyone else seen them.

0% commision and an excellent rate.
Today was 1.43
They only accept debit card though... and some cards cannot be used.

Best rate I've seen and atleast they are available when the Bank's and Post Office is shut.

:T :T :T

MarkyMarkD

MSE_Dan wrote: »

The Maximiser has just been updated with a warning section about using certian debit cards abroad

http://travelmoney.moneysavingexpert.com/#charges

This fully lists all debit cards which will charge you if you spend abroad. Any comments and feedback on this would be great

Cheers

Dan

The warning is an improvement, but it's miles below the list of "best buys" and people won't necessarily read it.

I would prefer the up-front input screen to ask you how you want to pay for your currency, i.e. what bank, which type of card, or whether you could pay cash if the option's available (and the last bit is a check-box, not part of the drop-downs which the other two should be).

Then you'd get a proper ranked list if, for example, you are an A&L debit card holder - meaning you can't avoid the fee on at least 6 of the top 7 currencies for Euros right now, and that M&S is the best deal because it's the only one where you can pay cash over the counter.

VEGPIP

We're going to Australia and looking for places to exchange money into Hong Kong dollar, Oz dollar, and singapore dollar..Everywhere is rubbish can you recommend the best? so far the best seem to be Saga and Eurochange.
We also have opened the nationwide flexaccount by recommendations and can we use this card in any atms in the countries mentioned above?
Will the exchange rate be rubbish? if you could write back with any info i'd be grateful!!!:j

moob_2

VEGPIP wrote: »

We're going to Australia and looking for places to exchange money into Hong Kong dollar, Oz dollar, and singapore dollar..Everywhere is rubbish can you recommend the best? so far the best seem to be Saga and Eurochange.
We also have opened the nationwide flexaccount by recommendations and can we use this card in any atms in the countries mentioned above?
Will the exchange rate be rubbish? if you could write back with any info i'd be grateful!!!:j

Check this link for the ATM finder from VISA. You will however need to find out whether or not the individual banks that operate the ATM charge a fee for using their ATM.

elderjoneses

Agree that you need to include Method of Payment with Best Rates.
I bought 300 Euros from Travelex, good exchange rate, but have paid (so far) £7.84 for the privelege. This includes Nationwide's cash advance fee and various forms of interest which cannot be avoided even if you settle the Credit Card in full each month, which we do. You cannot buy from Travelex without using a card so they really ought not to be at the top of the table.I feel peeved that having followed the Best Buy table I have ended up doing worse than any High Street exchange using cash.

dzug

elderjoneses wrote: »

Agree that you need to include Method of Payment with Best Rates.
I bought 300 Euros from Travelex, good exchange rate, but have paid (so far) £7.84 for the privelege. This includes Nationwide's cash advance fee and various forms of interest which cannot be avoided even if you settle the Credit Card in full each month, which we do. You cannot buy from Travelex without using a card so they really ought not to be at the top of the table.I feel peeved that having followed the Best Buy table I have ended up doing worse than any High Street exchange using cash.

You'd actually have done better to use your Nationwide CC in an ATM in Europe - you'd still have paid the same cash advance fee and interest but would have had a better exchange rate.

Some debit cards don't charge for Travelex purchases - but some do. It makes the whole thing very complicated.

moob_2

elderjoneses wrote: »

Agree that you need to include Method of Payment with Best Rates.
I bought 300 Euros from Travelex, good exchange rate, but have paid (so far) £7.84 for the privelege. This includes Nationwide's cash advance fee and various forms of interest which cannot be avoided even if you settle the Credit Card in full each month, which we do. You cannot buy from Travelex without using a card so they really ought not to be at the top of the table.I feel peeved that having followed the Best Buy table I have ended up doing worse than any High Street exchange using cash.

That's possibly the worst method of exchanging money you're describing. Using a credit card where it's treated as a cash advance and buying from a broker will always end up costing you a fortune.

What I, and many others on here, are describing is using Nationwide's debit card to withdraw cash from ATMs in foreign countries, which is fee free (bearing in mind the info above) and gives you the interbank rate of currency exchange.

If you wanted to use the Nationwide Credit Card abroad, you're best to only use it for purchases, not for withdrawing cash.

MarkyMarkD

Moob, you are absolutely right that it's a bad way of doing it. But it's the only way some people think they can do it, if they want some cash in their hand the minute they arrive in the foreign country.

And the Maximiser fails to point out the impact of banks' cash advance charges on the supposed best buys.

As I've said earlier, I've stopped using Travelex because the cash advance charges on my debit and credit cards make it poor value. But it's still right up there on the Maximiser's misleading best buy table.

To clarify Travelex (or any other company which makes you pay in advance by debit card) is only ever a best buy if your bank doesn't charge for cash advances on your debit card.

moob_2

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Moob, you are absolutely right that it's a bad way of doing it. But it's the only way some people think they can do it, if they want some cash in their hand the minute they arrive in the foreign country.

And the Maximiser fails to point out the impact of banks' cash advance charges on the supposed best buys.

As I've said earlier, I've stopped using Travelex because the cash advance charges on my debit and credit cards make it poor value. But it's still right up there on the Maximiser's misleading best buy table.

To clarify Travelex (or any other company which makes you pay in advance by debit card) is only ever a best buy if your bank doesn't charge for cash advances on your debit card.

Marky, surely they shouldn't charge for cash advances on a debit card as by it's very definition, the money is already in the account. Different, obviously, for credit cards.

I'm takin a minor gamble, and taking no dollars to the US with me next week. I'm gonna take cash out the ATM at sanford airport.

dzug

moob wrote: »

Marky, surely they shouldn't charge for cash advances on a debit card as by its very definition, the money is already in the account.

Maybe they shouldn't, but many banks do charge - probably most of them.